The most famous feature of the fishing village of Georgiopoulos in Crete is this little chapel that is literally on a little island in the bay, connected by a causeway that apparently can be all but underwater at high tide.
Back in 2015 I visited the U.K. (among a number of other countries), and visited Stonehenge. This place is set up for tourists, with a major visitors centre and car park a couple of kilometres from the actual site, with constant people carriers ferrying visitors back and forth. Or you could walk (which my colleagues and I did). With the crowds you might think that it would be hard to find a composition with few people. But if you worked your angles carefully and shot tight, it was possible to have just a couple of people in scene. In this image I only cloned out about four individuals. The sky was quite dramatic on the day, but the SOOC image had a fairly washed out sky. This was restored using Photoshop and the Color Efex Pro 4 filter that is part of the Nik Collection by DxO package. Stonehenge was a great location to shoot an iconic landmark and to enjoy the British countryside.
Also known as the * Millennium Wheel*, the *London Eye* stands almost 140m tall on the banks of the Thames River. It opened in 2000 and was the world’s largest Ferris wheel. Today it remains one of the largest in Europe and is a very picturesque part of the London skyline. I made this image back in 2015, when HMAS *Anzac* visited the UK as part of our Northern Trident 2015 deployment.
In 2015 I visited France. With some colleagues, we took an overnight trip out to visit Mont St Michel, the famous monastery on an island. We timed our arrival for the mid afternoon and enjoyed a spectacular sunset. We also enjoyed sunrise the next morning, and a day of exploration in this fascinating abbey. This was one of those locations that the one night there was not sufficient to do justice to the scene, but I am reasonably happy with the result.
Hercules' Tower (Torre de Hecules) is the oldest Roman lighthouse that is still in use today.Located in the city of A Coruna in Spain's Galicia region, the lighthouse was built in the 2nd century (CE).This image was created in the morning of a cloudless summer's day. Although many photographers prefer some cloud to provide contrast in the sky, I actually like a clear blue sky, at least sometimes.In these conditions a polarising filter is an important part of the toolkit.Image was processed using Lightroom CC and Photoshop, and there was some distortion correction and a small amount of object (people) removal applied.
I like a good silhouette, but find this type of photography to be challenging. I think that's because there needs to be a healthy balance between light and shadow (balanced light), strong features, colour and negative space.After making some sunset photos on the beach during our first evening in this beautiful Amalfi Coast town, I noticed this group of people down towards the water's edge. I moved to frame the main group with the sea behind them, and with the strong orange colours in the background. I then waited to get some interesting poses, taking multiple exposures as the group moved around and enjoyed the beach.In the off season (we visited late November) there are few crowds, so finding enough people while leaving plenty of negative space wasn't too challenging. Had there been larger crowds I would have to have framed the image differently.The strong contrast between light and dark was still a factor, even after sunset, so I made use of a 2 stop GND to manage the colour balance.With this the shutter speed was still quite fast at 1/50th, so getting a sharp exposure wasn't too challenging. The use of tripod still helped.
Like the other towns on Italy's Amalfi Coast Positano stretches from its beautiful coastline up into the surrounding mountains.Standing on the beach, the signature dome of the church of Santa Maria Assunta is framed between an enclave in the ridge-line of the mountains. Buildings stretch much of the way up.This image was made a few minutes after sunset, giving a love even colour across the buildings and hills. A tripod is an important tool in this type of imagery, as the relatively low shutter speed (0.4 of a second) would make a sharp image difficult to achieve if handholding.
Apart from the lack of crowds, one of the distinctive things about low season in Positano is that the days are quite short.As the late great photographer, Galen Rowell, once said that "You only get one sunrise and one sunset a day, and you only get so many days on the planet. A good photographer does the math and doesn't waste either."But it does make it easier when the sunrises and sunsets are at pleasant hours of the day. There are no excuses!Standing on the western end of the main Positano beach, you look eastward down the Amalfi Coast to catch the sunrise. The clouds only accentuate the beautiful colours of the sky in the sunrise.A 3 stop GND and a relatively slow shutter speed meant that a tripod was an important part of ensuring a sharp image.
Positano in the low season is marked by low numbers of tourists, and with many of the hotel, restaurant and retail workers being employed seasonally, the township is very quiet.There are many opportunities to explore the streets, alleys and stairways without the crowds, and much of the time there are opportunities to make photos without any people at all—let alone crowds.This image was made walking back up from the beach after sunrise photos. This is one of the main alleyways between the Piazza dei Mulini and the beach. We walked up and down this alley each day, and most of the time had it to ourselves.
Positano Low Road
Positano on Italy's Amalfi Coast is a spectacularly stunning township, rising up from the sea into the heights of the surrounding mountains.We visited in late Autumn, the low season for tourism, and we loved the fact that we could truly explore the coast, and the whole township without having to battle any crowds whatsoever.This image was made during the blue hour, shortly after sunset. Being winter sunset was quite early (4:39pm), and the blue 'hour' quite short - about half an hour. This short window meant that we had to scout early, then come back and setup early. Even though it was off season, there were some other photographers around and there are limited vantage points due to the cliff edges and narrow footpaths.Positano is a wonderful place for photographers and non-photographers who want to explore a stunning coastline.
Positano Hillsides
After a successful shoot in the blue hour from the eastern overlook of Positano, I decided to go back to the same location for sunrise photos the next morning.The early backlighting from the sun behind cast a really nice light over the township, lighting the surrounding mountains up with a beautiful golden hue, and bringing out the details in the various pastel coloured buildings built up and down the town's hills.This differentials of colours were accentuated with the use of a GND filter and a polarising filter, with some slight enhancement done in my favourite photo editing software, Luminar.Lesson here, even when you have a good shot from a location don't be afraid to go back at different times to really explore the location and the image possibilities.
This series of photos from Positano in Italy have showed different aspects of the town, its stunning coastline and some individual characteristics of the township.This image, shot from the same western overlook from which I shot the image 'East from Positano' shows the scale of the town growing up from the Piazza dei Mulini area in the centre of the town, extending up the heights of the surrounding mountains.The township is very much situated in what looks to me to be a fjord cut into the mountain range by the sea.The building next to the green roof in the bottom of the frame is the wonderful AirBNB place we stayed at, and is situated right in front of Piazza dei Mulini.As a photographer it is also important to sometimes turn the camera around to do a different perspective. While the East from Positano image has an amazing vista, this one is pretty good too, and is a key part of my Positano story. I think this image helps to illustrate the scale of the heights of Positano as it rises from the sea into the mountains.
One of the many gorgeous townships on Italy's Amalfi Coast is Atrani, a village literally 10 minutes by foot from Amalfi.Atrani is a pretty town cutting into another gap in the coastal mountain range, quickly rising up from sea level to the heights above.Our day trip to Amalfi and Atrani (from our base at Positano) was literally from morning until about 6:30pm. With the early sunset in our low season visit this was actually plenty of time.After arriving in Amalfi we walked straight to Atrani to find a shooting spot. We found this, and then walked back to Amalfi for a visit to the Basilica, some lunch and a visit to the paper mill. We then walked back to Atrani to shoot sunset and blue hour, before walking back once more to Amalfi to catch the bus.So we had a pleasant day of exploration, and getting the scouting out of the way early, using tools like The Photographer's Ephemeris to plan sun angles, meant we could relax and take our time.Travel photography is about exploring, but it is also about relaxing. Good planning and preparation allows you to do both!
Low Season
Positano is known for many things - beaches, restaurants, bars, walks, magnificent scenery and more. Perhaps however it is most known for its many, many stairs.The town really has only two roads - the main highway the winds between Sorrento and Amalfi that cuts through the high part of town, and a second road that winds down from the main road near Chiesa Nueva (New Church) and rejoins the main road near the Sponda bus stop.Footpaths on these roads are limited, to say the least. Getting around town, from the heights down to the beach is generally done on foot and by the many stairways.Shooting these stairways can be challenging as the light range can be quite broad. Shooting early or late in the day, or on an overcast day, can help. This image was made in the morning, and was framed to accentuate the winding stairway, and to use a slightly downward angle to emphasise the nearest stairs, and to crop out the brightest parts of the scene.Positano's stairways are part of this township's story, and are worth exploring, photographically.
The classic view of Positano is from the outlook at the eastern end of the township, near the Sponda bus-stop. This view is very oft the first stop for photographers visiting Positano[1].This is exactly why its a good idea to sometimes shoot the opposite view, so after watching Elia Locardi’s Photographing the World part 3 I decided to set out to find the overlook Elia used for an alternative blue hour location.This location looks eastward, so I shot it at both sunrise and sunset. Interestingly I really found the location to be better suited to sunset, perhaps a bit surprising, but the blue hour from this location was quite spectacular.For me, the clear blue sky in this image works beautifully with the lights of the town. Visiting Positano in the low season had many advantages, but there were far fewer lights coming on. Its possible that in high season there might actually be too much ambient light, so it would be interesting to see a comparison.This location was perfect for framing the dome of the church in such a way that it has clear sea behind.Tracking this location down was a good opportunity to get an insight into the thinking of a photographer like Elia. It was simultaneously a chance to learn scouting techniques, while exploring and being rewarded with a good photo location.
Famous for its spectacular coastline, seascapes and mountain vistas, life in Positano is literally built around the sea.The township is a year round magnet for tourists, and the crystal blue seas are a way that many get to and from the area, and are a major part of their enjoyment of it. Swimming, snorkelling, diving, sailing, fishing and other marine tourism are all important.During the quieter winter months fewer people swim, but there are constant reminders of the role that the seas play in the town's rhythm of life.After shooting the vistas of the township each sunrise from different overlooks, I felt the need to do something different. Along with the Steps of Positano, I felt that the *working sea* is an important part of the township's story.Image made as the sun began to rise over the headland further east on the Amalfi Coast. A 6 stop GND filter helped to balance out the strong highlights with the dark shadows, as well as providing glassy smoothness to the sea.
The Pantheon Piazza
Late Autumn is a great time to visit Rome as the crowds are much smaller than they would be during the Summer months.This image was created from the Spanish Steps, with a perspective down Via dei Condotti, an upmarket shopping street in city's centre. The presence of the crowds gives some indication of what the city might be like in the busier months. I am glad we visited when we did.It was an overcast day, but the use of filters and some image editing in Luminar helped to bring out the detail in the sky. The final image is much closer to the way I saw the sky on the day.
Rome, the eternal city, is an amazing place for photography. The thing about this city is that it a beautiful mix of the old and the new. Buildings that are hundreds, even thousands, of years old are still in daily use in a city that is also a modern world capital.There are so many landmarks in Rome, but a great starting point for photography has to be the Vatican view along the Tiber River from Ponte Umberto I. This magic view allows a composition with the Vatican on one of the 'rule of thirds' intersections, the Tiber River as a strong foreground feature and the Ponte Sant'Angelo and the sky framing the Vatican. In the evening the sun sets at the rear of the image, and the autumnal colours in this image really provide a balance to the greys of the architecture.After our week on the Amalfi Coast, Ponte Umberto I was our first stop for sunset photography in Rome. This image was made before the sunset and contrasts well with a blue hour image made from the same position.
Vatican by Bela
Roman Scaffolding
The Garden of the Vestal Temple in the Roman Forum.
The Temple of Castor and Pollux is one of the ancient ruined buildings in the Roman Forum.Today the temple consists of three marble pillars, some foundational structure and little more. It can be seen from a variety of vantage points from around the Forum.I composed this image to get maximal sky between the columns, providing what I feel is the strongest image.A polarising filter was an important addition to my kit for this shoot, allowing me to minimise glare.
After shooting the Roman Forum one dawn, we visited the site, easily spending a good half day exploring the various Roman ruins.Spectacular.It was a brilliant day, with beautiful weather, but some fairly ominous clouds came over the site, providing quite a spectacular sky. I found a composition that I liked with the column and dome. As shot, the image had some distortion with the straight lines of the column and the building on the right leaning inwards. I fixed the image with DxO ViewPoint 3.
Castel Sant'Angelo must be one of the most photographed sites in Rome. Given that Rome is one of the world's most photographed cites, that is really saying something.Having captured several of the classic vistas of Castel Sant'Angelo, I set about finding different angles. This street leading up to the bridge across to the castle presented an interesting composition for an afternoon image, with the shadows in the foreground, and the brightly lit castle behind.This image was shot hand-held, and some work was done in Luminar to get the lights and colours to match more closely the scene I saw on the day.
Bridge to Castel
One of the amazing things, at least to me about Rome is that so many centuries old buildings and structures remain in use today.A great example of this is Ponte Sant'Angelo — a bridge built in 134CE, and still used today as a main pedestrian thoroughfare. Distinguished by its 10 angels, the CBD of Rome lies on one side and the Castel Sant'Angelo lies on the other.I created images of Ponte Sant'Angelo on two separate nights, and preferred this angle with the bridge on the left, drawing the eye left-to-right into the castle. Beautiful reflections and the star burst patters made for an image that I really like.I'd love to have had more drama in the sky, but happy with the overall result as it stands.
A friend once said something to me along the lines of:"For Europeans 200km is a long distance, and for Australians 200 years is a lot of history."There is a lot of truth to this, as any building in Australia that is 200 years old is likely to be a heritage building. In Europe there are many buildings many centuries old still in daily use, and real heritage can be found in sites like the Roman Forum, which dates back for more than 2,000 years.We sought out a spot that is commonly referred to as the Forum Lookout, but found on scouting that there was a lot of scaffolding in place as key features are being cared for.So I came back to shoot a sunrise, carefully setting up to avoid the scaffolding and taking in a broad view of the Roman Forum.Scouting and perspective are important, and with a bit of thought a decent image can be made.
The Colosseum is such a large and important part of both the history of the Roman Empire and the City of Rome that it is actually hard to write something new and interesting about it.Photographically, any trip to Rome really needs to include an early morning or late afternoon flight. Not only is this to allow the best chance of getting good light, but also to catch the place when the crowds are minimal.In this case we made images at the Roman Forum at Sunrise, and the went directly to the Colosseum. The crowds were far smaller than in the middle of the day, but it is almost impossible to shoot without people in the image.We visited in late November, perhaps one of the quietest times of year, but there were still lots of people about.In this case, I considered deleting some of the people in post, but decided that the people visiting the place is part of the Colosseum story.After these images, we went for some breakfast before touring this wonderful structure. I remain blown away by the sheer amount of history this place represents, starting in the Roman era, moving through the early Christian Church and into the modern era.It is a truly impressive structure, and the engineers of the Roman Empire must have been outstanding, and you could only imagine what they might have been able to achieve if they had modern technology to support their construction.
After staking out a good vantage point on the Ponte Umberto I, I stayed there from the late afternoon (golden hour), through the sunset and into the blue hour. The exact same composition can deliver a range of different images.In this image shot in late November, the evening progressed and the river smoothed out, providing stunning reflections of the Vatican and early Winter sky.I watched as small boat rowed down the river. Knowing that the water's smooth surface and the reflections would soon be disturbed I worked timing to take an image with the boat approaching the reflection.
Even with a fairly featureless sky, blue hour is the best time of day to shoot for the clear, balanced light, and for the lack of crowds.To get this image in frame required setting my tripod up on the fountain in the piazza in front of the Pantheon, using a wide angle lens. I accepted the bit of lens distortion, but found that I framed it too tightly to straighten the image up 'in post', but I am very happy with the image nonetheless.I love the cool light of the sky and the warm light of the illumination of this 2 thousand year old religious structure. Ironically, the lights were turned off moments after this image, changing the look altogether.The second image, without illumination has my wife standing at the base of the columns. This gives some perspective on the engineering awesomeness of this structure.In the daytime there are many crowds around the Pantheon, with horse buggies and other street vendors. Daylight and crowds lead to very different shooting.
Perhaps the world's most famous fountain (and certainly the most famous in Rome), the Trevi Fountain is a spectacular baroque masterpiece not far from the Pantheon in the city's centre.In my other Rome images I have discussed my preference for the pre-dawn blue hour as an opportunity to get nice light and few people. This image was made after sunrise, but before the crowds. The image was created with a very wide angle of 7mm (14mm in 'full frame'). A little bit of straightening was done with DxO ViewPoint, and basic editing in Luminar.
The Lateran Obelisk is the largest standing Egyptian Obelisk in the world, and stands prominently in a piazza in Rome, not far from the Colosseum.We kind of stumbled across this monument after visiting some basilicas in the area. I took a look at the Modern Atlas iOS app and found mention of the obelisk, so we wandered over for a look.In a busy piazza it would've been very easy to snap a couple of shots with one of the surrounding buildings in the direct background of the obelisk. I took a few minutes to find a vantage where I could frame the structure with sky behind.Because it was the middle of the day, I had to adjust my bottom crop to cut out the traffic and people out, with a quick bit of tidying up in post.
Adjacent to the Lateran Obelisk are various sections of the old Roman Aqueduct system. Each section has been built into surrounding buildings, like this piece which has several houses built in and around it. The Aqueduct will likely stay in place for as long as the surrounding buildings remain there — and vice versa.
Castel Sant'Angelo represents the uniqueness of old old Rome.Built originally as a mausoleum by Emperor Hadrian in around 123-139CE, the complex was later used as a Papal residence and fortress and then a prison. It is still in use today as a museum and tourist attraction.In researching Rome photography using 500px, Flickr and the Modern Atlas app I realised that Castel Sant'Angelo would present a range of shooting opportunities. In some respects this image gives prominence to the castle, and the starburst of the lights on the bridge work well in this composition.To tell the story of a subject is an important part of the experience. And it gives a better chance of getting a unique image.
The colours of Copenhagen's Myhavn become even more saturated under a stormy sky.
There is a reason why Nyhavn in Copenhagen is popular with photographers—it is easy to find good compositions, wonderful colours, great light and magic reflections.We had two nights Copenhagen, but the combination of a late arrival, and early departure and the weather gave me a good sunset and a nice sunrise. A wonderful city, Copenhagen could easily be somewhere I could stay and photograph for several days. With limited time, I planned my photography using online resources to identify possible locations, and then used tools like PhotoPills to work out my starting points for shooting.
Prague's Charles Bridge is a pedestrian bridge linking the Old Town to the Prague Castle area. We visited in Autumn (September) when the crowds were said to be relatively small, through it you look at the number of people on the bridge at sunset it is hard to imagine what is must be like when it is 'busy'.It is also hard to imagine what it must be like as I write this during the COVID-19 pandemic, when cities like Prague are on lockdown.There are a number of good vantage points for shooting Charles Bridge, and sunrise and sunset align pretty well during our visit. PhotoPills was valuable in planning the time and positioning I wanted to get the best image.In this case I went up the tower at the Eastern end of the bridge for the sunset image. I went up the tower well before sunset to find my spot, and waited there through sunset and into the golden hour and blue hour.During this time, I made sure to allow space for others to get images, noting the *vast* majority of people would stay for a few minutes, capturing a small number of shots before moving on.
It is astounding that it is almost four years since I captured this image of an epic sunset in Prague, Czech Republic. Captured from Powder Gate, I love the way the Y-shaped intersection below leads the eye towards the city’s iconic cathedral and castle in the background.
A wonderful sunset over Prague provided a stunning view of this cathedral and the distant castle.
St. Stevens Basilica is a World Heritage Site in Budapest, Hungary. On this day, there was a display set up in St. Stephens Square for a major movie launch, so our shooting options were limited. We walked around and found this vantage point, which allowed us to get a good shot.
![The classic view of Positano is from the outlook at the eastern end of the township, near the Sponda bus-stop. This view is very oft the first stop for photographers visiting Positano[1].This is exactly why its a good idea to sometimes shoot the opposite view, so after watching Elia Locardi’s Photographing the World part 3 I decided to set out to find the overlook Elia used for an alternative blue hour location.This location looks eastward, so I shot it at both sunrise and sunset. Interestingly I really found the location to be better suited to sunset, perhaps a bit surprising, but the blue hour from this location was quite spectacular.For me, the clear blue sky in this image works beautifully with the lights of the town. Visiting Positano in the low season had many advantages, but there were far fewer lights coming on. Its possible that in high season there might actually be too much ambient light, so it would be interesting to see a comparison.This location was perfect for framing the dome of the church in such a way that it has clear sea behind.Tracking this location down was a good opportunity to get an insight into the thinking of a photographer like Elia. It was simultaneously a chance to learn scouting techniques, while exploring and being rewarded with a good photo location.](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/a3ae6991-6368-4e1b-99b7-07de33d266c3/ce2e9162-dcc7-47e8-ae23-93eb7210e111_rw_1920.jpg?h=e961a48b777cbcb786c0d845544f4784)
